Based on an empirical study of the unemployment experiences of middle-aged people who lost their jobs following the closing of a ceramic factory in Coimbra (Portugal), this article shows the extent to which unemployment at a critical moment of workers' personal and professional trajectories reduces the opportunities in the employment market and, when associated with the fragility or absence of mobilizable family resources, amplifies the protective function of the Welfare State. Our empirical evidence points out some of the limitations of the uncritical application of the familialism model of social regulation of unemployment to understand unemployment experiences in Southern Europe countries.